The Lee County Sheriff’s Office homicide unit is achieving an impressive feat, maintaining a perfect clearance rate since 2023. This means they have solved every murder, starkly contrasting the national average of around 50%.
Detective Adan Selimovic, one of the new detectives assigned to the unit, explained the behind-the-scenes work involved, such as writing search warrants and obtaining cell phone records.
“There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff that goes on, you know, writing those search warrants, getting cell phone records, being able actually to read those cell phone records,” said Selimovic.
The unit, comprising 17 individuals led by a captain, includes sergeant supervisors, detectives, and crime scene technicians who work diligently on crime scenes. Sgt. Rob Patton, who has 13 years of experience in homicide, recalled his first case, which he solved quickly.
“It was amazing,” said Patton. “It took about four or five days, and then he hid briefly. Then we finally worked our magic and found him on a traffic stop.”
In 2022, a body was found on the side of the road. Patton, assigned to the case, required all the resources of the homicide unit to solve it.
“My major Crimes Unit, detectives, crime scene unit, all worked around the clock, not sleeping, combing through every piece of evidence and leaving no stone unturned,” said Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno.
The investigators identified Patrick Alvarez as the victim and quickly identified Stanley Brown as a suspect.
“He was transported up here to this room where we interviewed with him,” said Patton.
Patton learned that Brown was annoyed by his roommate making noise.
“I told him, I said, this yelling and screaming got to stop,” Brown said.
“I just did what I could to keep him quiet, and that’s it,” he added, confessing to the crime.
However, the confession was not enough. They still needed evidence to go to court, where crime scene technician Nicole Rhoton came in.
“It could be the largest thing to the smallest, tiniest thing that nobody is going to think of, fingerprints, the things that you can’t see, such as footprints to and from a scene. DNA evidence is huge,” said Rhoton.
Brown pled guilty to murder, marking another cleared case for the Lee County Sheriff’s Office Homicide Unit and its commander, Capt. John Long.
“We don’t give up. We grab onto a case and keep going,” said Long.
Long continues to work on cold cases in his own time, including a case from 1978.
“19-78 was a case I had been working on recently. Brenda reading, I’ve been working that case myself since it’s a cold case from 1978,” said Long.
He revealed that he knows who the offender is, but the person is deceased.
“The offender is deceased, so I’m trying to close that one up,” he said.
Thanks to their meticulous work in forensics and interviews, the Lee County Sheriff’s Office Homicide Unit achieved a 100% clearance rate in 2024 and is on track to do the same in 2025.
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SOURCE: WINKNEWS, Lee County’s 100% murder clearance rate since 2023 beats national average